The prehistory of the central Queensland highlands

The Central Highlands of Queensland have played a significant part in the development of Australian archaeology. This is partly due to the sheer number and range of Aboriginal sites that attracted first amateur, then professional interest virtually from the time of first European settlement. In the early 1960s the region leaped into the vanguard of Australian archaeological research with the excavations at Kenniff Cave, which provided the first indisputable Pleisto­cene date for an Australian Aboriginal site. Since that time a total of 11 sites have been excavated and several aspects of the archaeological record have been exam­ined, including artifact assemblages, rock art, and plant-processing technology. The Central Highlands are one of the few areas of Australia for which a detailed regional prehistory can be synthesized. ...